


Late Night Blooms

by MintIceTea



Series: Rumbelle Tumblr Events [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Showdown, Rumbelle Showdown 2018
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 23:16:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14725473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MintIceTea/pseuds/MintIceTea
Summary: A mysterious plant is donated for Belle to research. But she also has other mysteries she'd like to look into. Like the Scottish botanist called in to help her.And the doppelganger she's spotted through a magical portal.[Rumbelle Prompt Showdown 2018]





	1. Of Night Blooming Flowers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Round 1 Entry for the 2018 Rumbelle Prompt Showdown under the name A Very Lost Cuttlefish.
> 
> Prompts: twins; full moon; Belle owns botanical garden  
> Group: A  
> 

An office full of books, a building full of plants, and a thermos full of tea. Belle may be considered odd. But she surrounded herself with her favorites things, so it didn’t matter if she was strange. She was happy.

Alone, yes. But happy.

All her employees were good people, but never seemed sure on how to interact with her.

But it’s alright, Belle assured herself, this place is her sanctuary anyway. She doesn’t need anyone else here. The ferns brushed her ankles as she passed, their leaves curling and bobbing behind her. Even in the dark, the path underfoot was familiar, and that was a comfort in itself.

The greenhouse was at the far back corner of the property, away from the guests. Kept safe for the most delicate of specimens. Belle stopped just before entering the private area, the pond catching her attention. It came with the property, and instead of filling it – Belle had opted to keep it. her fondness for flora even extending to the algae that ringed the water in spring.

There were rumors that it was haunted. There were many reports, both from employees and guests, of whispers from the water at night. It had become such a belief among the staff that few would offer to work late in the greenhouse. Various excuses, most of them ridiculous. So Belle had finally sent them all off, a little relieved for finally having a reason to do so. She’d have this whole place her private oasis if she could, but it wasn’t workable. But the nights she had all to herself, and her latest acquisition. With her mystery flower.

It had been donated, apparently found somewhere in Maine by a local sheriff. Definitely not local. It had been wilting until it arrived in the nearly tropical heat of the greenhouse. It had curling, triangular leaves, glossy white with blue tips, a single heavy bud on a long stem, petals still curled tightly together. It looked like it was made of glass, and she couldn’t help but treat it like one. It was one of the oddest plants Belle had ever seen. There was a botanist coming from England to take a look at it tomorrow. While Belle didn’t care for outsiders in  _her_  greenhouse, she wanted to know more about this plant.

But that was hours away. And Belle was far too anxious to leave this plant alone for long. Especially not to _sleep_. She’d be fine. She’d sit here with her tea and her current novel. Her notebook full of sketches and observations would be more than enough to keep her occupied until dawn.

Two hours later, out of tea and with a completed novel, Belle was forced to admit that she had underestimated herself. She stood, stretching and groaning as her back protested. She had to pause trying to work out a knot in her right shoulder. It was over the popping of her sore muscles that she first heard it.

The whispers.

She froze, straining her ears to pin where it was coming from. She followed it with quiet, shuffling steps to the door of the greenhouse.

As she followed it out, she was able to tell it was a conversation, though she couldn’t make out the words, just two voices. A man’s and a woman’s.

Her mind should first go to intruders, as strange as it would be to have them break into here of all places. But there’s something about the woman’s voice that keeps her from being frightened.

She was cautiously walking by the pond when she hears someone call her name in exasperation. “Belle!”

“Yes! Who’s there?” She responded automatically. Rolling her eyes at herself at the voices immediately fell silent. But it only lasted a moment.

“Hello?” Now she could tell it was coming from the water. She knelt at the bank, peering into the water. The reflection from the full moon nearly blinding her in it’s brightness. Blinking, her vision cleared enough to see her reflection.

There was something, strange, about it though.

The face blinking back at her, was undoubtedly hers. She reached her hand up, making sure her hair was still pinned up, not in the loose waves her reflection was sporting. And Belle was certain she wasn’t wearing the old fashioned dress her reflection was. Nope, same rumpled red blouse she had been wearing all day.

“What?”

Belle’s reflection seemed as surprised as she was. She turned over her shoulder to speak to someone behind her. “Rumple, what is this?”

The second voice Belle had heard, the man’s voice, responded. “It’s your reflection, dearie….or not?” He finally came into sight in the reflection, and Belle gasped. Gray scaled skin, with large, strange yellow eyes, he looked like a creature from one of her books.

“Hello, dearie.” He greeted, looking amused.

“What’s going on?” Belle sat back a bit, not enough to lose sight of them in the water.

“Seems we’ve accidentally opened a connection – parallel words and all. Fascinating, but useless and not at all what I was attempting.” The creature replied, more to his companion. “Unless you have a twin that you haven’t told me about, my little maid.”

“I haven’t!” Belle’s reflection replied, before turning back to her. “Is your name Belle also?”

Belle nodded. “Annabelle French.”

“Annabelle? Curious, my given name is Isabel.” Her reflection replies. “But we both go by Belle.”

”How did you accidentally call a parallel universe?” Accepting that she had fallen asleep while reading, this was dream, and there would be no harm in questioning.

“Magic, dearie, has the habit of doing strange things when one is distracted.” He slid a glance at Isabel who smiled demurely.

“Magic?” Belle asked doubtfully. “Like, witches? Are you a wizard?”

“The greatest in the land: Rumpelstiltskin, at your service!”

“So very humble.” Isabel commented, a smile tugging at her lips.

“Ah-ah-ah! There is no need to be humble when it is the truth.”

Belle couldn’t help a smile at their banter. “We don’t have magic here, tell me about it.”

Rumpelstiltskin blinked, looking interested. “No magic?”

They seemed to be just as curious about her world as she was about theirs. It was easy to ignore the ache in her back from leaning over the pond, and she wished the had brought her notebook with her. When she mentioned that worked with plants, Rumpelstiltskin even brought over some of the strange specimens he had in his tower.

* * *

“Miss French? The botanist from England has arrived, would you like me to send him in?”

Belle bolts awake at the voice of her assistant, Graham. She nearly falls from the chair perched by the table. Momentarily disorientated. “What-what time is it?”

“Eight, I know it’s early – but he insisted that he meet you immediately.” Graham eyed her skeptically, it wasn’t the first time he had found her asleep in the greenhouse, and it honestly wouldn’t be the last.

“Sure, sure, send him in.” She glances at the plant, just to be sure it’s still there. After her strange dream, she was almost worried she had made it up as well. Thankfully, it was right where she left it. Odd leaves and all. She tries to shake of the lingering hold of the dream, turning on the hose and splashing her face.

Belle quickly fussed with her hair, trying to straighten it to look somewhat presentable without a mirror. She knows she still looks a mess by the time the horticulturist walks in, leaning heavily on his cane.

“Mr. Gold.” Belle greets, feeling the slightest bit of familiarity, though she can’t immediately place why. She’s spoken with him before of course, but only through emails, never face to face.

“Ms. French.” He returns, a crooked smile as he takes in her messy appearance, politely refraining from comment.

“You can call me Belle.”

“Ah, then it’s nice to finally meet you in person, Belle.” And suddenly she recognizes the Scottish accent. From her dream last night. The reflection Belle and the wizard – Rumpelstiltskin.

She feels the slightest bit of a headache. Either her dreams had taken a prophetic turn, or she had indeed stumbled across a parallel universe.

She’d had to investigate that later, she decides, turning to introduce Mr. Gold to the specimen. She had another mystery to solve first. 


	2. Late Nights in the Garden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Round 2 Entry!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly this was my first thought at the prompts: “Is this okay? Dark enough?” “No, much darker.” “I can’t turn off the sun, dearie.” But since that was all I had, I decided to just continue with my fic from round 1. ~~(Which will be completed by the time showdown is over, whether or not I make it into the next round, so don’t let that be a factor in voting. xoxo)~~ (I, uh, yeah. see end notes.)
> 
> Prompts: can’t fall asleep; grumpy; much darker  
> Group: H

“What are you still doing here?” Mr. Gold growls, not raising his head from the magnifying glass he was peering through. “Graham sent you home hours ago.”

Belle would’ve bristled at his attitude, _who does he think he is, talking to her like this in her own greenhouse_ , but she was just too damn tired. “He did,” she admits, “I couldn’t sleep so I came back.” She yawned, pausing a moment before dragging a chair over to the work bench beside him.

“Did you even try?” He finally looked up, frowning when he realized the room beyond the reach of the lamp beside him was much darker than he remembered. “What time is it?”

“About two in the morning.”

“Hm.”

“If anyone needs to go to bed it’s you.” Belle sighed. “You haven’t slept either, and you were here before I was today. Yesterday.” Quite a feat since Belle lived within walking distance of her gardens and spent more time than she truly should here.

“I’m fine.”

“Mm.” Belle gives him a look, and he sighs, rubbing at his eyes. They may have only been working together for a month, but he knew how stubborn she could be. “Find anything interesting?”

“First you try to banish me, and then you try to interrogate me.” He complains but reaches for his notebook.

“If I was interrogating you, you’d know.” She leaned over, her shoulder against his.

He made a noise at her sudden closeness. “Erm, unfortunately I’ve found nothing new. The glow has been growing brighter near the full moon, as you observed, but other than that I’ve found nothing.” He glared at the plant, that despite all their experiments, hadn’t bloomed since Belle brought it in.

Belle blinked, an idea suddenly occurring. “Mr. Gold, you haven’t taken the plant outside the greenhouse, have you?” He looked offended.

“Of course I haven’t!”

“Maybe we should.” Thoughts were swirling around in Belle’s head, and most of them may be because she was sleep deprived. But haven’t the best discoveries come from insomnia? Or was she making that up?

Wordlessly she grabbed the plant, striding towards the entrance to the greenhouse. Leaving Gold to splutter and fumble for his cane to catch up with her.

Once outside Belle headed towards the pond. She hadn’t been thinking of her strange occurrence last full moon when she thought of taking the plant out. It’s just that, if Gold noticed the same – that the plant altered with the wax and wane of the moon – perhaps direct moonlight would help. The plant was sturdy enough now that she felt comfortable taking it out of the shelter of the greenhouse.

By the time Gold caught up to her she was seated by the edge of the pond, the plant settled carefully on the edge of the water where the moonlight was brightest.

“What has gotten into you?” Gold huffed, panting slightly as he caught up to her. She gestured for him to join her, and with a disbelieving look he did. Settling himself gingerly on the large stones near the water. “Ms. French, if you’re going to act recklessly I would prefer if you left the specimen behind.”

“Look at it though.” She pointed at the bud. “Doesn’t it look brighter? And more open than it was before? Maybe it needs moonlight to bloom properly.”

“…There’s a chance you may be right.” He leaned closer to peer at the flower. Something caught his gaze in the water, and with a shout he stumbled back. “What?!”

“Ah, it’s you again.” An amused voice came from the water.

Belle smiled. “Honestly I thought I dreamt the whole thing up. Is Isabel there as well?”

“She’s got her nose in a book, but yes.” He turned away briefly. “Belle! Your doppelganger is calling.”

Isabel’s face appeared, grinning brightly. “Hello again! We’re not really doppelgangers though, so don’t worry. No imminent death for either of us. Just parallel universes, I was reading and it says there are probably only minor differences between ours. Or major, I suppose, considering yours doesn’t have magic.”

“Usually so, but oh, while I have you we have this odd plant. It’s extremely strange by our – uh, universe’s standards.”

“What’s going on?” Gold muttered, more to himself than anyone else. But the confused and helpless look that he directed at Belle made her feel a little bad. But how could she have explained this? She wasn’t sure that  _she_ knew what was actually going on.  At least she knew now it wasn’t a dream.

“A plant?” Rumpelstiltskin asked, looking curious.  “It wouldn’t happen to be a type of beanstalk, would it?”

“If we knew what it was we wouldn’t ask lizards in ponds about it.” Gold snapped, fingers twisting around his cane.

Rumpelstiltskin gave Gold a thorough once over, eyes narrowing. “Indeed.”

Isabel looked between them, opening her mouth. Then seemed to swallow her original question. “A plant?”

“Yes, here it is.” The moved the flower so they would be able to see it. “It was found it up north, only one like it there or on record anywhere.”

Rumpelstiltskin peered at it, eyes growing wide. Without a word he spun away from view, Isabel turning to look after him. “Rumple?”

There were sounds of crashing and muttering. Isabel made a sound of annoyance. “Be careful with the books!”

He let out a shout, more of a sound of victory than anything else, appearing back in the reflection a book in his hands. “It’s a type of tree.”

“A tree? Trees don’t come from glowing hybrid orchids.” Gold scoffed, seeming to come back to himself now that they were talking botany again.

“Shows what you know.” Rumpelstiltskin shot him a disdainful look, but Isabel leaning over his shoulder to look at the page made it slightly less intimidating though. Belle hid a smile behind her hand. “A  _magic_ tree, dearie. It doesn’t follow normal rules.”

“What does this  _magic_  tree do, then?”

“It doesn’t have to  _do_ anything.”

They continued to bicker about the purpose of a tree being magical if it didn’t actually do anything. Belle caught Isabel’s eyes through the water. “Does yours get grumpy without sleep as well?”

Isabel immediately nodded, a smile tugging at her lips. “Yes. He hasn’t slept for a couple of days.”

Noticing their conversation Rumpelstiltskin tilted his chin, trying to look imposing perhaps. “Dark Ones don’t need sleep.”

“Hm.” The sound Isabel made was so doubtful Belle couldn’t help but laugh. Both the men looked at her in displeasure. Isabel took pity on Rumpelstiltskin, patting his arm. “What type of tree is it, Rumple?”

He frowned, almost as if he didn’t want to share his information now. But Isabel gave him a look, and he caved, turning back to the book to find the page he wanted. Belle wondered if that look would work on Gold as well. She shot him a glance out of the corner of her eye. Probably not. Isabel and Rumpelstiltskin were obviously fond of each other. If not in love.

Her and Gold were not.

Though, Belle mused as they waited for Rumpelstiltskin to find the page he lost, she could see herself falling for him. As grumpy as he was, he was a mystery. And mysteries were one of the few things Belle loved more than plants. He gave her a questioning look, noticing her eyes on him, she just shook her head.

“Ah! Here we are.” Rumpelstiltskin turned the book towards them, so they could see. “It doesn’t have a name. The faeries are far to protective of it.” He let out a sigh that was both annoyed, and a little shaky. Anxious, maybe? “But when fully grown it can provide transport to other worlds.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I *KNOW* I said I'd have this finished by the time showdown was over but I uh.
> 
> I watched My Hero Academia.
> 
> And I got obsessed with a new ship.
> 
> And I have to put this on the backburner for a bit while my life is consumed by Erasermic. Not abandoning it! Just put on hold! Sorry!


End file.
